I think of how often I dislike the song or songs released by a band for radio airplay, but love the rest of the tracks that would now be thought of as disposable. To this day, I still can't stand "Superman" by R.E.M., but nearly every other song on Document is pure gold [EDIT: "Superman" actually appears on Life's Rich Pageant -- Thanks Tom Lampe]. I think of how many times a song that didn't excite me at first listen that ultimately became my favorite through play after play after play of the album. The fact that this doesn't happen often today with young music listeners is a great shame, because this is the reward of playing an album in its entirety - knowing what songs are coming, but not knowing how they will affect you in that moment.
It is a common refrain as it pertains to modern technology that everyone is constantly communicating, but nobody is really talking. Those who espouse it point out the superficiality of texts, quick e-mails, Facebook posts and 140-character messages are replacing actual, meaningful conversation. If you think about it, a corollary of this theorem applies to how many now consume music: They are listening to everything, but are they really hearing it?
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